The invention is based on an apparatus for electrostatic atomization of liquids, particularly fuel as defined hereinafter.
In an atomizer of this kind, the liquid is passed through the electrical field developed between the electrode and the nozzle body, causing it to charge electrically. This charging causes the liquid to be atomized after it leaves the nozzle. To obtain good atomization with the smallest possible mean droplet diameters, the liquid must be electrically charged as high as possible.
In a known apparatus of this kind (German Patent Document 28 50 116 A1), the high voltage between the nozzle body, which is at ground, and the electrode, which is at negative potential, amounts to up to 30 kV. However, it has been found that if it is used for nonconductive liquids, one example of which is fuel, the attainable charge density and thus the fineness of the atomization is limited by a corona discharge of the stream of liquid emerging from the nozzle opening. The process of corona discharge takes place as a result of the draining of the charge, located at the surface of the stream, along the interface between the liquid and the ambient gas toward the outside of the nozzle.